Watch Cheer Up, Virginijus! (1962) Official Trailer

The film about the city of Naujoji Akmenė is regarded as one of the first Lithuanian attempts to liberate itself from the stereotypes of the Soviet documentary. Even though the remnants of the “Socialist prosperity” are clearly perceptible in the movie, the process of directing is obtaining more freedom: the voiceover is losing its canonization, and the power of the narrator is given to the main character, a small child Virginijus.